Ciarán reinvents himself on the lush and lived-in Róisín

McDonald was easily the shyest piece of the BROCKHAMPTON puzzle, shrouded in mystery, rarely in the spotlight. If he did emerge into the glare, he'd swiftly return to the background; among the band's fans, though, the desire for his presence was immense. Early Bearface solo tracks, uploaded to Soundcloud and Bandcamp in the early 2010s, circulated widely; just a few crumbs of his angelic falsetto, recorded over airy guitar, but enough to make a mixtape or two, alongside his more electronic work. In 2022, when BROCKHAMPTON burnt out and fell apart, the clock was set ticking for a wave of solo releases. McDonald's time to shine as a one-man show felt imminent, but from November 2022 to July of this year, there was nothing. But the years of silence weren't for nothing. Róisín shows that he was right to take his time and not be pressed by expectations. Titled after the middle name his parents would have given him if he'd been born a girl, Róisín is at times gentle, much like his established honeyed demeanour, but it’s also murky and corrosive, colouring his music in heavy chiaroscuro, sprawling in unexpected directions. Little remains of what won the introverted star devotees in the fi...